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Bukit Panjang
Bukit Panjang is a suburban area situated in the Central North-Western part of Singapore. The Bukit Panjang Planning Area, located in the West Region, encompasses the Housing Development Board's housing estate of Bukit Panjang New Town and the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. History Bukit Panjang was originally named Zhenghua, and advanced earthworks begun on 15 June 1981. HDB flats rose up the spring on 20 May 1985, and so far only Blocks 1xx and 2xx were built. Neighbourhood 4 was up and running by 1989, and followed by Neighbourhood 5 and 6 which was the recent ones since 1995. The roads there are named after old 60s kampung tracks (Lorong Petir, Lorong Pending, Jalan Fajar, Jalan Senja) which used to ply the area. Etymology Bukit in the Malay Language means "hill" and Panjang means "long". Bukit Panjang literally means "long hill" which gets its name from the long range of high hills which ends in Bukit Timah to the south. At the height of the movement to change place names in Singapore to Mandarin ones using hanyu pinyin romanization, the new town to be built in the area was initially known as Zhenghua (正华), along with Yishun (义顺) for Nee Soon, and Zhujiao market for tek kha (竹脚) market in Kandang Kerbau. The trading of old dialect names which have gained common currency for unfamiliar, Mandarin ones was not well received by the public, and Bukit Panjang was quickly reinstated. However, the name Zhenghua is preserved in the name of the flyover between Bukit Panjang Road and the Bukit Timah Expressway as well as the Zhenghua Park. Administration The Bukit Panjang area comes under the administrative lead of the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, which oversees the management and maintenance of the many apartments (HDB Flats) and commercial units in Bukit Panjang. Political history Bukit Panjang is politically divided into three constituencies. The area of Bukit Panjang is in Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency whose Member of Parliament is Teo Ho Pin who is the mayor for Northwest Community Development Council. The other two constituencies are enclosed in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency. This includes Senja, a part of Jelapang, Segar, Gangsa and a portion of Petir. Senja, Segar and Jelapang are located in Zhenghua constituency of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC whose Member of Parliament is Liang Eng Hwa with Gangsa and the remaining portion of Petir belonging to Cashew division of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC with its Member of Parliament being the Foreign Affairs Minister Dr.Vivian Balakrishnan. Education Primary Schools * Beacon Primary School * Bukit Panjang Primary School * Greenridge Primary School * West Spring Primary School (starting in 2014) * West View Primary School * Zhenghua Primary School Secondary Schools * Assumption English School * Fajar Secondary School * Greenridge Secondary School * Zhenghua Secondary School West Spring Secondary School West Spring Secondary School (WSSS) is a government secondary school in Bukit Panjang, Singapore. West Spring Secondary School had been scheduled to be built over a plot of land over at Dairy Farm Road, where there used to be a temple which had a well. The well was believed to bring good fortune to those who cleansed in its waters. Based on the location of the plot of land, the school was named as West Spring Secondary School, where "West Spring" means "a spring (or well) in the West". West Spring Secondary School started classes on 2 January 2001, then moved from a temporary holding campus along Dairy Farm Road to the new permanent campus 61 Senja Road in January 2005. West Spring Secondary School had its first intake in January 2001 at Zhenghua Secondary School, the holding site. A piece of land at the end of Petir Road was reserved for the building of West Spring Secondary School. The school was scheduled for completion in December 2002. However, there was a change of plans. The land reserved for West Spring was withdrawn and a piece of land along Senja Road was allocated to build West Spring Secondary School. Due to this change, West Spring Secondary was ready only at the end of 2004. Thus, the pioneer Secondary One cohort could not get to enjoy their new school's facilities. As a result of this, West Spring Secondary School moved to occupy the old Teck Whye Secondary School at the end of December 2001. West Spring Secondary School finally had shifted to the permanent residence in Bukit Panjang in January 2005. It was opened by Vivian Balakrishnan on 9 September 2005. Shopping centres Bukit Panjang Plaza Bukit Panjang Plaza (Chinese: 武吉班让大厦) is a shopping mall located near Bukit Panjang at Bukit Panjang in Singapore. It is currently managed by CapitaLand. It was opened in October 1998. Their tenants are McDonald's, Kopitiam, EC House and NTUC FairPrice. Daiso used to have one but it closed down. Hillion Mall Hillion Mall is a shopping mall located at Bukit Panjang and was opened, replacing the former site of Bukit Panjang Bus Interchange on 24 February 2017. Junction 10 Junction 10 (formerly known as Ten Mile Junction, Chinese: 十里广场, stylized as Junct10n) is a shopping mall located at the junction between Woodlands Road and Choa Chu Kang Road. Named after the defunct KTM tenth-mile railway line mark of the former Tanjong Pagar to Kranji part of its Singapore mainline from Upper Bukit Timah Road, it also doubles up as SMRT's Ten Mile Junction Depot for the Bukit Panjang LRT system, and is the headquarters for SMRT Light Rail. The Ten Mile Junction LRT station is located within the complex. Sheng Siong Hypermarket was the anchor tenant since it opened in the mall in December 2004. It was replaced by Giant when Junction 10 opened in Q4 2011. Redevelopment Ten Mile Junction was closed on 10 December 2010 to become the new shopping centre Junction 10. It is also part of a mixed-use development - The Tennery, which forms a potential market from the 338 innovative SOHO-style loft apartments. The Ten Mile Junction re-opens on 30 December 2011, with the soft launch of the newly redeveloped Junction 10 shopping mall. Transport Bukit Panjang is adjacent to two of Singapore's major highways, the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) and Kranji Expressway (KJE), and is a quick gateway to and from other towns. As such, many drivers coming from the western parts of Singapore make use of Bukit Panjang's major roads as one of the ways to access the BKE, and, subsequently, the KJE. The bus system, rapid transit and light rail are the forms of public transportation that serve this town. The public bus system is predominantly SMRT Buses. Of the SMRT buses based in Bukit Panjang, some are intra-town "feeder-service" buses that serve the various neighbourhoods, some are used to ferry passengers into the Light Rail Transit system, and the rest are long-distance services that serve as a mode of transport to other towns and to the city. The driverless and fully automated Bukit Panjang LRT Line was completed on 11 June 1999 is estimated to be worth $2 billion. The rail line was intended to serve the growing town and act as a replacement to the many buses employed through the town, especially during rush hour. Feeder and intra-town buses operate by SMRT Buses serves Bukit Panjang as well as two services by SBS Transit. There is also a light rail transit system (LRT) which runs and connect Bukit Panjang with Choa Chu Kang, the Bukit Panjang LRT and the future Bukit Panjang MRT station which will be located next to Junction 10. Several petitions were presented by the residents of Bukit Panjang protesting the decision by SMRT to replace the buses in Bukit Panjang with the LRT system. Some of the complaints were related to the fact that people preferred the previous bus system that covered most parts of the Bukit Panjang neighbourhoods such as bus service 190 and 972. The previous bus system was viewed as more efficient because it had many bus stops within walking distance; the LRT system has only 14 stations that are spaced hundreds of meters apart. The new Bukit Panjang MRT Station on Downtown Line has opened, right across Bukit Panjang Plaza, and is an interchange with the Bukit Panjang LRT Station. It will serve Bukit Panjang residents direct train access. Gallery 20180216_140445-1-.jpg 20180216_140448-1-.jpg|Zhenghua Secondary School Category:Hills of Singapore Category:Places in Singapore Category:West Region, Singapore Category:Bukit Panjang